Col. Taylor ropes in a few pilots from the Fitness Center to play escort in a simulated assault against the Kilrathi Carrier.

Date:

2659.107

Related Logs:

None

Participants:

Taylor James Phillip Walsh Paz

Designed to fit a maximum of facilities in a minimum of space, the Fitness Center of the Majestic is an oddly crowded room. Entrance from the Crew Services deck actually leads to the second level of the facility, with ramps to left and right leading down to the floor. Ringing the sizeable room at the height of the second level is a four lane running track. Set under the running track around the perimeter of the room are a number of weight machines, exercise bikes, a set of punching bags, and numerous other types of stationary equipment. The center of the room is relatively more open, containing a boxing ring and a number of mats suitable for either gymnastics or martial arts. Locker rooms are set into the fore bulkhead, with a sign by the doors indicating that access to the facility's pool is through the lockers.

The Fitness center is fairly empty at this moment. There is a pilot, Phillip Bradford, who is presently doing sit-ups on the mats.

James is jogging on the track taking occasional sips from a bottle of water he's carrying as he goes.

Walsh enters and begins walking down the ramp towards the punching bags.

Phillip notices Walsh's enter. In between a breathe, he says "Heya Sam." "How's it going?" he ask between another breathe.

James waves to the pair in passing but continues his jogging with the track soon carrying him away from his fellow pilots.

Walsh pauses to reply to Phillip. "Oh, hey. Been better, but not too bad I guess."

The Wing Commander, Colonel Stephen Taylor, walks in the Fitness Center. He is dressed in the usual casual uniform of a pilot. As he walks into the room, he looks around. "Huh, just the three of you," he mumbles to himself. He then speak with more volume such that he can heard by the three pilots, "So any of you need more sim time?" he asks in a tone indicating that the answer should be yes.

Phillip gives James a quick wave of his hand as he raises for a sit-up. Phillip nods toward Walsh in response. Then he spots the Wing Commander's entrance. "I guess he's here to exercise or something," Phillip thinks to himself. Then he hears the Colonel's question. "Oh boy, that sure sounds more like an order that a question," Phillip thinks. Phillip rests his body back to the ground and begins to get up. In response to the Col. Taylor, Phillip says, "Always, sir."

James says, "I guess I could. What are we siming attacks on the jump point fleet or the base we're hunting for?" as he walks over an before taking a long swallow from his water bottle.

More sim time? Probably not, but the colonel's definition of 'sim' time probably differs from Walsh's here. Besides, the only safe answer to this particular question is 'yes', so the punching bags will have to live for another day.

After hearing their responses, Taylor nods saying, "That's good." He looks over toward James and replies briefly, "The devil we know, Lieutenant." He then turns around and walks out the door and down to corridor towards the Simulator room.

Phillip finishing rising from the mats and heads up ramp toward the exit.

Walsh jabs at the punching bag a couple of times, just so he can say the trip wasn't a complete waste of time, then turns around, heading the way he just came from.

James shrugs at the response from the colonel and begins to walk towards the exit.

All three pilots exit the fitness center and follow Taylor to the Simulator room passing through the crew services corridor. One of the most populous areas on the Majestic, Crew Services provides space for the crew to spend their downtime. The corridor is wide here, set with a trio of news terminals which tend to serve as focal points for gatherings. From the ship's bar to vidrooms to the fitness center, this area offers the latest in shipboard entertainment.

Colonel Taylor immediately heads over to the control pod and initiates the program that the pilots will be sim-flying today. " Alright Williams in pod 2, Walsh pod 3, and Bradford in pod 4," Taylor says shortly after sitting down at the control pod. A few seconds later he is closing the pod. Once the other three pilots enter their pods, the simulation begins.

James nods as he enters the room and makes his way to his assigned pod before climbing in. While waiting for the sim to load he finishes his water and sets the empty bottle outside the pod.

Phillip enters the sim room not really sure what to expect from the sim mission. He heads over towards the simulator pods and upon hearing the pod number, walks over to sim pod 4 and takes a seat. Seconds later he is strapped in and ready to go.

Walsh steps into the room and, hearing his pod assignment, walks over to pod 3. He sits down and tries to make himself comfortable.

The screens and systems inside the sim pods go live and the four pilots find themselves near a massive fleet battle and fighter melee. Raptors and Rapiers dogfighting all manner of Kilrathi craft. Several rows of Sabres with Stilettos and Rapiers for cover are racing for the various Kilrathi capships in the area with Two Gilgameshs and a Gettysburg following behind. There are at least 4 destroyers arrayed about with a Snakeir lying at the center. The pilots are flying their traditional craft at the rear of this chaotic mess. The TCS Majestic lies behind the human pilots.

«Alright Cutlass, you are in charge of my escort. We going to cut through the enemy screen and hit that carrier. Just keep the furballs off me and I'll do the rest. Meat Grinder out.» Taylor radios to the three human pilots as his pulls orients his Sabre directly toward the enemy Snakeir.

James nods and opens his comm «Understood. I'm on point, Iceblade up and starboard of the Sabre, Walsh down and port. Let me know the instant you spot something coming our way.» He accelerates to take his planned position in the formation.

The simulation initiates and Phillip sees a massive fleet battle already in progress. Nothing compared to the Battle of Junction, but certainly not minor. «Roger that MG,» Iceblade radios as he pulls onto Cutlass' wing and prepares for escort duty. So far the kitties seem to be too busy with fighters and other bomber flights to pay the non-AI's much mind.

The Two Stilettos and a Rapier fly cover nearby the Sabre, which is heading full speed toward the Snakeir. Around the flight can be seen numerous fighter melees punctuated by explosion after explosion as Kilrathi and Confed fighters alike are destroyed. After several tense seconds, a trios of Sarthas and two Dralthis pull from one nearby fighter melee to take out the lone Sabre and its cover. Things are about to heat up for the human pilots.

«Ice, if you must abbreviate it is Grinder. Don't call me MG again.» Taylor responds harshly to Iceblade. After a few seconds, Taylor spots the fighters peeling off toward him, and he radios «Cutlass flight, we have incoming bearing three-three-four mark two. Keep them off me, but stay close. Meat Grinder out.» the Sabre continues forward jinking a little here and there. An FoF is launched from Taylor as the Dralthi get closer and closer.

James watches the incoming fighters and cuts in the comm «Iceblade on the Second Dralthi, I'm on the Leader. Ozone with me but watch your back. And try to save the missiles for any surprises that show up.»

"Opps," Phillip says inside his sim-cockpit. "Uh oh," Phillip spots the kilrathi fighters heading their way. Phillip begins to twist his fighter to avoid rounds as a Sartha starts firing at him. Phillip spots the Dralthis going for Taylor, so he decides to cue up an imrec to blast one of them. «Roger that Cutlass,» Phillip radios in response to James. Lock-on and PING! «Iceblade Fox 2!»

«Copy that, Cutlass. On your wing.» Walsh radios as he receives his orders. Forgoing his usual tactics, he stays in formation and fires at Cutlass' target from medium distance.

The fight is quickly engaged and both sides receive damage. Both Dralthis receive nasty hits and the lead Dralthi is badly banged up. While the Sabre come out undamaged, Iceblade did take a moderate hit to the cockpit from a passing Sartha that is now riding his tail.
«Closing on the Snakier now, setting a lock right for its bridge. Keep up the good work, escorts.» Taylor radios as he sets up a lock on the Snakier.

James grimaces «Ok Walsh pry the Sartha off of Iceblade if you can I'll handle our target. Iceblade stay on yours if your able but watch your back.» He swings down to fire a burst at his target before breaking away.

A Sartha's neutrons come flying right at Iceblade's cockpit right before he fires. Phillip instinctively went evasive but it caused the imrec to be fired at much more avoidable angle. "Damn it, Phillip says before radioing «Roger that Cutlass». Phillip tries to avoid getting blasted from behind and sends forth a second imrec at the Dralthi. «Ice, Fox 2.» Phillip radios after the lock-on.

Walsh notices neutron shots near him too, but in the chaos can't decide whether they're actually aimed at him. With the lead Dralthi clinging to life by a thread, and orders to assist Ice, he breaks off and pursues the troublesome Sartha. «Copy that. Ozone guns.»

Both Dralthis go for heat seekers, but Taylor easily distracts them with a chaff pod. The first Dralthi shudders from rounds from Taylor's AI tailgunner and James' mass drivers, but manages to keep flying while the second Dralthi suffers some more damage, this time from a successful hit by Phil's imrec. As the range closes, the Snakeir misses Taylor by a mile, but soon starts shooting many more bolts. The battle around this flight is mixed at best as both sides take loses, but one of the Kilrathi destroyers goes up.

«Excellent work Cutlass and Iceblade. I've got a lock, Torpedo away.» Taylor radios as he fire a torpedo at the Carrier's bridge.

James grimaces as he takes a hit, «Ozone break to hit the Sartha going after the Sabre and use a missile if you need to. Iceblade try to save the rest of your missiles in case we get hit again but stay on target» He swings around to fire another burst at the lead Dralthi.

As Phillip's imrec hits, several neutrons flash his shields again. Juke evade. «Roger that Cuts» Iceblade radios as pulls onto the Dralthi's tail. «Ice Guns» Phillip radios as he sends forth round after round of neutron and laser fire into the tail of the second Dralthi. «Uh oh, that Snakeir is really sending up the hail.» Iceblade radios in warning.

That neutron fire was definitely aimed at Walsh, and his aim is unsteady for trying to dodge it, leaving his shots to be dissipated mostly harmlessly by the target's shields. Just as he's considering the need to go full evasive, the Sartha on his tail breaks off, leaving him free just in time to aid the Sabre. «Ozone copies.» "… but can I hit something, please?"

The heavy hail of laser fire from the Snakeir only serves the Confed side as it obliterates the heavily damaged Dralthi missing the Confed ships completely. Unfortunately, this reprieve from flak didn't help that much as James loses his left wing from a lucky dumbfire hit while Taylor takes a heatseeker as he pulls from launching the torpedo, which only chews up the bridge's armor doing negligible damage overall.

Taylor fires his torpedo, but as he pulls away a Dralthi gets a lucky heatseeker hit, «Escorts, get on that Dralthi…damn, that torpedo did nothing. Alright going for the sweet spot, keep me covered Cutlass.» Taylor as he afterburns for the Kilrathi's flightdeck letting the torpedo slowly lock as he goes.

James curses as the damage alarms begin screaming after his fighter is hit «Copy that Grinder but I'm not sure how much help I'll be. Iceblade I'm joining you but don't expect much help until I have some time for repairs.» He bores in on the Dralthi guns blazing.

Phillip's shots go wide as the Dralthi evades upon firing the heatseeker while Phillip's tries tp avoid getting a dumbfire up the tail from a Sartha, who immediately decides to go finish off Taylor. "Damn this isn't going well, time to even up the odds a little," Iceblade says as he switches to dumbfire and loops around to come down the Dralthi's topside. "Ready?… Ready?… fire" Phillip says as he waits for the Dralthi to reach the right stop for solid cockpit hit.

As Taylor races over the carrier, the gun batteries attempt to nail him but are firing also into the path of the Kilrathi fighters tailing him.

"… Thank you kindly." Walsh remarks as he does indeed hit something, his mass drivers perforating the Sartha's canopy. Not everything appears to be rosy though, the other cats have enjoyed some success with missiles. Orders come in to focus on the remaining Dralthi, but with Iceblade bearing down on it, and Cutlass' badly damaged Stiletto at least pointing in its general direction, he decides the Dralthi probably has enough problems, and it might be best to tie up one of the light fighters.

The Kilrathi fighters launch their last missiles, which are quickly destroyed by laser fire from the Snakeir. Whose side are these gunners on anyway. Both James and Walsh score minor hits on their targets while Phillip's "well-placed" dumbfire shot is evaded by a rapid and unexpected breaking maneuver from the Dralthi. The dumbfire hits harmlessly across the Kilrathi Carrier's hull. The Kilrathi fighters may be out of missiles, but they aren't done with the Sabre yet and begin going after him with guns blazing.

Taylor pulls around toward the rear of the Snakeir, torpedo locked on, and the Sabre rapidly reaching a perfect angle. All the while mass driver and neutron fire are flying past him. And he is lined up, «Grinder, torpedo away»…

James grimaces again and switches to his own missiles before breaking off towards the unengaged Sartha «Iceblade on me with their missiles gone the Sartha's are more of a threat.» He waits for a tone and squeezes the trigger «Cutlass Fox 2!»

The rapid deceleration of the Dralthi causes Phillip's dumbfire is just miss it. "Not again!" Phillip yells. Phillip burns to get right up onto the Dralthi's tail and lets loose another dumbfire right into its tailpipe.

With the fight drawing closer to the hostile carrier, Walsh charges at his target and opens fire, though the barrage of laser fire keeps him further away than he would like. Still, his shots punch through shield and leave their mark on the Sartha's hull. Not keen on chasing his prey through the thick of the carrier's defenses, he decides on the long-range approach. Switching to missiles, he waits as the brackets settle. The targeting computer emits its sweet music. «Ozone, Fox Two.»

The fight continues apace as Taylor must dodge incoming neutrons toward his cockpit, which throws off his torpedo angle. The Torpedo rails right into the carrier's hull doing serious but not critical damage to the carrier. Both Phillip and Walsh nail two more of the fighters. Taylor's cockpit takes a nasty hit, but the ship and pilot are still in it to win it.

All across simspace the battle continues to rage as two more of the destroyers have fallen with most of the enemy fighters destroyed although the Confed ships are also taking heavy casualties. Some fighters are returning to base while some the Sabres fall back torpedoless. There is however little hope for the Carrier as no further kilrathi fighters can assist and the battered Confed capships are beginning to slowly head towards the Kilrathi Carrier to finish it off.

Taylor finds he must avoid the neutrons just as he is firing rather than after, "Damn," Taylor says while evading the incoming fire and seeing his torpedo fly off mark against the hull. He tries to evade more rounds and attempt another pass on the flight deck. «Cutlass, Iceblade, Ozone, get on those Sarthas…Now!» Taylor yells over the comm. The Torpedo slowly locks and finally chimes in. «Grinder, torpedo away.» He radios multiple precious seconds later.

James opens the comm «Everyone after the last Sartha» his tone becomes harsher «And Iceblade while I'm certain the question of whether or not you can be courtmartialed for insubordination because of actions in a simulated battle is fascinating, you shouldn't put so much effort into finding out» followed by «Cutlass Fox 2!» as he opens fire.

Paz enters the Simulation Room and smiles a little when she sees the training mission in progress. Humming to herself, she opens one of the pods and sets it up for direct observation mode. «Evening Gents.» she radios once inside the game. «Don't mind me, just taking a peek at what the cool kids are doing tonight.»

Iceblade finally nails the Dralthi. "That one is done, dear god, the Colonel," Iceblade says quickly detecting the Taylor's Sabre is holding on only by a thread. After hearing James over the comm, he quickly realizes he missed an order somewhere, very recently. "Damn it." «Sorry Cutlass, I must have lost track of the battle *somewhat mumbling*and my ears apparently*/somewhat mumbling*, going for the Sartha now.» He radios apolitically. He rapidly accelerates toward the last Sartha arming an FoF missile and lining up for the cockpit. He is so focused now on how badly he just screwed up if this were real that he doesn't notice's Paz's communication. Is there something wrong with his headset or his head. Geez.

His heat seeker inserted neatly up the backside of his quarry, Walsh takes a brief time out to see how the battle is progressing. In doing so, he sees the WinCo's simulated Sabre get worked over by the combined fire of the carrier and the remaining Sartha. Said Sartha is about to find itself very popular, being the sole survivor in the area. Walsh is just circling around to attack it when James opens up comms, chastising Phillip. This raises his eyebrows somewhat, but no comment. He does spare a moment to greet Paz though. «Greetings, stranger.» he says surprisingly cheerfully.

The Snakeir seeing its destined fate here, immediately begins coming about. It is definitely preparing to jump out. This turning throws off the gunners' aim causing shots to fly a little more widely.

The battle continues with Walsh being the only one to score a hit on the Sartha and a light one at that. The Sartha however manages to land more shots into the Sabre's cockpit. That combined with the unexpected maneuvering of the Snakeir causes the torpedo to fly wide.

Taylor gets hit yet again and the Snakeir looks to be getting ready to jump out. Unlike Iceblade, Taylor is more conscious of what is going on around him. «Icemelt, get your sorry head out of your ass and kill that damn Sartha! No excuses. If the carrier jumps out, we won't be able to go after it.» Taylor makes a final run at the Carrier as he prepares to make the jump.

Paz chuckles to herself at Taylor's rebuke. "Well said, well spoken." she smirks, watching the chaos unfold on her vidscreens. «Ozone, Tizona, thanks. Looks like you guys are having all the fun again.» she comments.

James curses and tries to line up his last missile on the Sartha despite his joystick seemingly having a mind of its own. After a few seconds of struggling he hears the tone and squeeze the trigger «Cutlass Fox 2!»

Iceblade's missile is finding the lasers more interesting and explodes near the Sartha. "Arggh" Phillip yells as he switches to full guns and aims right for the Sartha's cockpit. «Sorry Grinder, the missiles don't seem to work very well with all the flak from the carrier. Ice out.» Phillip radios in reply to Taylor. Hopefully, Ice out doesn't mean Ice out of a cockpit; ie grounded by Grinder or Tizona, Phillip's CO who is watching right now.

Ozone cancels aim: distracted by Tizona. Funny that. Still, the majority of his rounds are on target, gouging holes in the Sartha's hull. Not enough to put the pilot off its aim though, and it manages to pepper the Sabre's cockpit again. Simulated Taylor seems to be 'built like a brick shithouse', however, and keeps on going. «Right. Let's make this last bastard history before Grinder is.»

Taylor's last torpedo flies right into the Snakeir's shields thanks to simulated damage to the Sabre's phase analysis system required for a torpedo to actual bypass a capship's phase shields. And with that the Snakeir, seriously damaged and lacking its entire fighter complement jumps out. Several rounds of antimatter fly across where the carrier used to be but seconds ago. The lone Sartha takes a couple of hits, but preserves and now decides to go in for the kill on a Confed bomber. A kamikaze run.

«Oh great work folks.» Taylor radios sarcastically before harshly adding, «The Carrier got away, and my Sabre is not even good enough to be a hangar queen. I'm ending the simulation here.»

The simulation immediately ends with the Sartha about to collide with Taylor's Sabre.
Paz winces at the tone of Taylor's voice, slipping out of her sim pod as discreetly as possible.

James fights down the urge to point out who had been in charge of actually killing the carrier after Taylor is through and climbs out of his pod silently.

Phillip manages to land a hit. He hears Taylor's tone and his heart sinks. He keeps pursuing trying to nail the Sartha before it…Blank Screen. "Well that was terrible." Phillip admits to himself before opening the sim pod and slowly getting out it.

With steady aim this time, Walsh makes solid hits. Still not enough to disable the thing, even combining fire with Iceblade. The Snakeir jumps out and the Sartha goes for his final hurrah. Then, blank screen. Game over, man! Walsh sighs deeply, shaking his head as he climbs out of the pod. "Fuck me, am I glad that was a -sim- run…" he says to nobody in particular.

Taylor gets out of the control simpod and looks right at the three pilots (well, he knows Paz is there, but none of this reprimanding is towards her) with a stern look of concentrated anger. He then speaks harshly and forcefully, but without actually yelling or raising his voice, "What happened in there? You couldn't take out three piss-ant light fighters and a couple of Dralthi. When we actually go up against that fleet there will almost certainly be more fighters going after myself and my bomber flight than 5." He looks over to Phillip, "And /Second/ Lieutenant Bradford, I don't know what to say. You waste a lot of missiles on one target and only barely manage to take it down after it is no longer a real threat. And I don't care if you go distracted or lost focus, you were given an order by your wingleader and did not follow it. You are still a second Lieutenant, Lt. Williams outranks you and is more experienced. I catch you doing that again…anywhere, you are grounded, but that will be the least of your problems." He then turns his toward to Paz and says more calmly, "Captain, I will leave you to deal with Icemelt here." He starts walking towards the exit.